Oliver Park, a recovering addict from Indiana, finally has everything he ever wanted: sobriety and a loving, wealthy partner in Nathan, a prominent DC trauma surgeon. Despite their difference in age and disparate backgrounds, they’ve made a perfect life together. With everything to lose, Oliver shouldn’t be visiting Haus, a gay bathhouse. But through the entrance he goes, and it’s a line crossed. Inside, he follows a man into a private room, and it’s the final line. Whatever happens next, Nathan can never know. But then, everything goes wrong, terribly wrong, and Oliver barely escapes with his life.
He races home in full-blown terror as the hand-shaped bruise grows dark on his neck. The truth will destroy Nathan and everything they have together, so Oliver does the thing he used to do so well: he lies.
What follows is a classic runaway-train narrative, full of the exquisite escalations, edge-of-your-seat thrills, and oh-my-god twists. P. J. Vernon’s Bath Haus is a scintillating thriller with an emotional punch, perfect for readers curious for their next must-read novel.
Book Information: Print Length: 305 pages. Publisher: Doubleday. Publication Date: 15 June 2021
About the Author:
P. J. Vernon was born in South Carolina and has been called “a name to watch in the thriller genre” (Booklist). Library Journal and Book Riot compare his critically-acclaimed Gothic debut When You Find Me to Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects. His next thriller, Bath Haus, is forthcoming in June 2021 (Doubleday). Vernon is represented by Aevitas Creative Management and United Talent Agency (TV/film). He lives in Canada with his partner and two wily dogs.
My Review
This is my first book by PJ Vervon and I immediately downloaded his first book When You Find Me as soon as I finished Bath Haus.
Bath Haus is the story of Oliver Park, a young man who on the surface appears to have everything he’s ever wanted: a loving, successful and wealthy husband Nathan who is also a distinguished surgeon. A sprawling house in Washington, financial security and more importantly 5 years of sobriety having finally escaped a violent and dysfunctional life in Indiana.
For reasons unknown at first, Oliver decides to visit a gay bathhouse on the weekend his husband is away on a medical conference, despite knowing his actions could end everything he has worked so hard to achieve and a violent and horrific attack at the bathhouse leaves Oliver running for his life and covered in bruises.
Unable to tell his husband the truth Oliver lies to cover the attack and so begins the cat and mouse game with Oliver’s attacker hunting him down determined to finish the job.
This really is a twisted, page-turning thriller and slowly PJ Vernon peels away each characters past allowing the reader little glimpses of Oliver and Nathan’s relationships and the demons both men are battling.
This is a story of addiction, obsession, secrets and lies and kept me gripped throughout.
